Some of us are clay artists because we value a natural substance from and of the earth. Others relish clay as a poultice or revere its power to ground and center spirit. Still others use clay to stimulate the brain or feel empowered as it becomes whatever shape they wish.

For me, clay is all this and more because it gives willingly to us all. When students enter my studio for the first time, though their life may be falling apart around them, working with clay gives them another perspective; when they leave the studio, they are are happier and ready to return to their world renewed. Even those who claim to be without creativity enter my clay studio and create beautiful objects.

How blessed we are to work with the earth itself, the terra matter from whom we all derive and to whom we all flow.

"If we are to protect this earth, we will have to recognize that the sacred, the numinous,and the wellsprings of creativity can be touched when we open our souls to the souls of other living creatures" -- Aaron Katcher, MD --